The Flower and The Stag
by DibbleDabble
Summary: The story of Lily and James' story, and how they fell in love. Marauder Era adventures, including Sirius, Remus and OCs as well!
1. Chapter 1

Lily turned just in time to see both her parents disappearing back through the barrier. She looked around at the bustle on platform 9 ¾ and appreciated that this was the last time she would be boarding the Hogwarts express. She tugged on her trunk and pulled her backpack onto her shoulders before climbing onto the shiny red steam train. As she made her way through the corridor, peering into the compartments, she saw many new faces, but also many old friends. One compartment in particular held extra joy for her. She saw her two best friends, Melody and Sarah. Melody was busily flipping through a large book, while Sarah was fussing with her silky blonde hair. Lily pushed into the small room and both girls jumped up to hug her.

"It's been way too long Lils!" she heard Melody say into the side of her faded pink hoodie.

"Yeah, way to write me back! Gosh, it's only been months!" Sarah's indignation stuck out, but was quickly replaced by the squeals that so often accompanied a happy reunion.

"I'm sorry; I just got so busy with extra reading and schoolwork that I didn't have much time to write." Lily apologized. Her friends sighed and flopped back down as she pulled her baggage in through the door. She reached up to sling her trunk onto the shelf, and just as she was balancing one foot on the edge of the seat she felt her legs get knocked out from under her.

"Oi!" she screamed as she tumbled to the floor. She looked up to see the deep blue eyes of Sirius Black. His black hair fell forward and tickled her face. Sirius had become her friend, even though he was always fooling around and pulling pranks. As he grew up though, his loyalty and bravery also stuck out to her and the two became friends.

"hey! What are you doing to poor little Lily?" She heard the deep voice of James from the doorway. As she go up she walked right up to him, inches from his chest, got on tip toes and leaned mere centimeters from his face, and whispered

"Poor …Little… Who….?"

She felt a shiver run through James' and giggled at her teasing game.

"It's not nice to be such a tease Lily, you night just give me a heart attack one day." He retorted as he regained his composure.

"And would that be a bad thing?" she laughed back. They both moved to go sit down, he sat next to Serious, and she next to Melody. They had both just sat down when a disheveled Remus Lupin poked his head through the door

"Lily, James, it's time for the Head's meeting"

Lily sighed exasperatedly, was she ever going to get to just sit down for a second?

She and James made their way down the corridor of the train, he was trailing right behind her.

"Hey Lily" He whispered right in her ear. She jumped at the shock, but didn't move as he pulled her long red hair over her shoulder.

He leaned in closer and tickled her ear with his words

"I can be a tease too…" and with that he leaned away. She felt immediately the loss of his presence, and turned around to make sure he was still there. When she turned he was closer than she expected. She looked up with her Emerald eyes into the Hazel of his. His dark lashes rimmed his eyes so perfectly, and the messy black hair was falling forward onto his forehead. She just stood there looking at him, not glaring or reprimanding, just looking.

The two of them continued their walk to the Head's meeting where they met with the Prefects and told them their duties for the year. Lily wasn't paying full attention the whole time; instead she was dealing with an onslaught of emotions boiling in her head.

What happened with her and James? She had always hated his pranks and he used to be so arrogant. But now when she looked into his eyes she didn't see any of the old spark of mischief. All she saw now was the soft warm flame of love. She saw love when she looked into his eyes.

As they left the meeting he lightly let his arm brush her, a gesture that left her with goosebumps.

"Lily, you seemed a little distant during the meeting, is everything okay?" Woah! was this actual concern coming from Potter. Was he being nice? Something really had changed with him…

"I'm fine Potter, just thinking about schoolwork" she replied, lying blithely.

"Just like you Lily, we're not even at school yet and books are already on your mind." They both laughed, and her sweet laughter rung in his ears, as did his deep chuckle in hers. Just before they reached the compartment with all of their friends, she felt his soft hand wind around hers. As she turned her face up to see his, he leaned down and their noses brushed. Her breath caught in her throat, and she prepared herself for his lips. She breathed in his clean scent and felt his arms wrapping around her waist. He leaned over to her ear and she felt the slight wind of his words

"See, told ya I could be a tease too!"

And with that he was gone, and she was left breathless in the corridor.


	2. Chapter 2

Lily was threw her fist into the wall after trying to get into the Head's Common room for the seventh time.

"Hollywarbles" she tried again. But the mirror remained solid and she just saw her frustrated face glower back at her. She kicked her trunk with a thud, and slid down onto it. Leaning against the rough stone walls she let her head clunk against the gritty surface.

She felt a warm hand on her shoulder slowly shaking her awake. She hadn't even realized she was asleep, but she knew she was being woken up.

"Lily? Hellooo?" She knew that voice. That voice belonged to a certain James Potter. She flung her eyes open and jumped off her trunk.

"Oh, hey James. I couldn't get in earlier, the password wasn't working." She tried to explain without looking stupid.

"Oh, huh" James' deep voice echoed in her ears. "Well, here I'll give it a try. Hollywarbles!". The mirror slowly started to ripple from the center until the surface looked like it was boiling, and it disappeared revealing a short granite tunnel.

"Ladies first. Here let me get your trunk"

"Thank you James" Lily said looking up at him. When she looked into his eyes she felt the same spark she had felt on the train, and she wondered if he felt it too.

She followed him into their shared common room which was draped in warm crimson and sparkling gold. There was a fire crackling in the fireplace and she saw that there were photos of their families on the mantle place. She curiously went over to examine them, and saw that James had a little sister. There was an adorable picture of the two of them running around outdoors when they were young. She saw her family portrait, not a magical moving photo, but a still muggle one. She remembered the day they took that photo, she had had a huge fight with Petunia that morning and after the photo sitting she went out for ice cream with her mum. She missed her parents very much, but her time at Hogwarts was always precious to her.

When she turned back around she saw that James had left her trunk outside the door to her room, and was unpacking in his. She pushed open her door and saw a huge tower room with a large four poster bed and its own fireplace. She unpacked into the large closet then sat on the midnight blue covers of her bed. Her Gryffindor pride was huge, but crimson and gold were not her favorite colors all the time. They made a very warm and inviting common room, but she preferred the cooler tones of blue and white for her own room. Dumbledore must have known this even though she didn't remember telling him.

"Hey Lily, want to walk down to dinner together?" James poked his head in her door.

"Yeah, I'm just gonna finish folding this pile, one second." He walked into her room and was standing by her window looking out onto the lake. She finished folding and walked over to him.

"It's good to be back at Hogwarts isn't it?" she asked standing next to him.

"Yes, it really is…" he trailed off and she could feel him looking at her. She turned and flashed him a smile and they left for dinner together.

The Head dorms were a little secluded in the castle so they had quite a walk to dinner. Lily didn't mind because it gave her more time to catch up with James. They chatted about their summers and their friends. She noticed he didn't talk about pranks or quidditch. He wasn't arrogant or snarky. They stopped for a moment next to a statue of Alexandra the Magnificent, the great witch who defeated the Hungarian trolls in the sixth century. Lily and James were sitting on a small bench in front of the statue. They were in no hurry to get to dinner, but their conversation had faded away and they were just sitting together. His hand slowly brushed against hers, and she couldn't really tell if he had done it on purpose. She looked down to see his fingers dancing on the back of her hand, and she twisted her fingers around to entwine with his. She couldn't believe that she was really holding James Potter's hand. The same James Potter who spilled frog juice on her during second year, and had bullied other students ruthlessly. She was still waiting in fear of his return. But for now this new James was more than fine. They sat staring at each other for what felt like hours but couldn't have been more than a minute.

"Oi! They're down here!" Sirius's voice bounced off the walls and shattered the silence. They looked up in time to see Sirius and the rest of their gang all bounding down the hall towards them.

"We've been waiting for you at dinner! Where have you been?" Melody sang out.

Lily and James dropped each other's hands as their friends neared.

"Oh, we were just taking our time. Didn't realize how late it got" Lily said, clearly flustered.

"Yeah, it took us a little while to unpack" James offered.

"Well lets goooooo before all the food is gone!" Sirius was always thinking about his stomach.

And with that they all turned and walked towards the Great Hall for their last Welcome Feast, with James gently linking his pinky with Lily's.


End file.
